Railgun Precision Munition System
The Railgun Precision Munition System, RPMS, or simply Railgun Artillery is a space-based kinetic bombardment weapon mounted on space destroyers primarily used by the AcDragonians. Railgun Artillery was developed as a cost-effective but still powerful weapon delivery system to bombard planetary targets. The primary advantage of this weapon system is that the weapons themselves fall below the category of planetary assault weapons, which are weapons solely made to bombard planetary targets such as ultra-high caliber rounds, missiles, or other high powered weapons. Since the RPMS simple accelerates a projectile to high speed and generates all of it's force through kinetic energy transfer, it's legal to use against planetary surfaces according to the Dragon Charter, making it the first highly cost effective and flexible tactical weapon in the system. Technical Details Railgun Artillery was adapted from anti-ship railguns as a solution for tactical orbital support that didn't require the use of either high-energy space weapons or weapons of mass destruction, while generally leaving the surrounding infrastructure outside of the impact area relatively unharmed. The munition is a simple Tungsten-Steel round that is launched via a dedicated railgun toward a planetary surface. The projectiles are accelerated to 16km/s (~58000km/h) toward the object's surface which then impact with enormous force. The rounds vary in weight and size depending on the amount of damage that needs to be inflicted. The weapon is very difficult to defend against with little to no warning of it's approach but also the mass of the round make it difficult to intercept. Smaller, less devastating munitions are used in the launchers as well for tactical strikes in lieu of traditional artillery. The Railgun Artillery makes a characteristic boom when it enters earshot because of the extreme speed at which it travels but normally by the time the boom is heard the munition already impacted the target. The saying on the ground as a result of this is "If you hear the boom, it wasn't aimed at you". Ammunition Types RGKP-TS4A2 The Rail Gun Kinetic Penetrator - Tungsten-Steel or RGKP-TS round is the standard Rail Gun Artillery munition. It deals its damage primarily through transfer of kinetic energy into the target due to it's blindingly fast impact speed. The round weighs in at 300kg and when fired out of the gun it reaches speeds of 16km/s impacting with a blast yield equivalent to 9.1 tons of TNT. RGHE-U3A6 The Rail Gun High Explosive - Ultra round is an adapted round for use in the Rail Gun Artillery system. Designed as a battalion killer, it's Ultra-High Explosive payload explodes with an equivalent of 2kt of TNT. RGSM-MY2E1 The Rail Gun Shatter Munition - Medium Yield round is a medium yield experimental explosive munition that acts much like a super-massive air burst artillery shell. The weapon is fired over a designated area and the munition is detonated using a mixture of high-explosive compounds located inside of a very tough exterior shell that will shatter on explosion and drive the variable size molten fragments down toward the ground and around the munition with blistering speed. The fragments will punch through even heavy armor with terrifying ease and will tear apart any infantry that happens to be in the area of effect. The splintering fragments also will tear apart any aerial targets in a 500m radius of the detonation. RGEM-P2A3 The Rail Gun Electro-Magnetic - Pulse round is a limited scope specialty round that is used in instances where large-scale disablement of electronics is required such as bringing down a defense network or missile shield. It can also be used to disable vehicles in the impact area and can inflict heavy damage to electronic systems on enemy capital ships. The actual blast radius of the EMP is relatively small compared to the radii of other munitions, so in many instances multiple hits in multiple locations with these munitions are required to result in a cascade failure that would bring down defensive networks.